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With over two dozen factories around the world the Citizen Watch Company has been producing quality precision watches and timepieces since the company was founded in 1930. The years have seen the company grow and expand into other technology products and became a major force in the digital liquid crystal display, microelectronics and optical devices markets.
The expertise the company gained through the introduction of quartz timepieces was significant to the tremendous growth in the production of televisions and high resolution digital projectors.
Since the founding of the company, over two hundred million watches have been produced. Though competing companies such as Casio have gained ground in the growing market for practical and rugged watches, the Citizen Watch Company lays claim to introducing the first line of shockproof watches as well as waterproof watches designed for the rigors of diving. Seeing a market for affordable and reliable timepieces that Citizen had, as part of its mission, the idea of offering quality watches that would be within reach of people of modest means. This goal was made possible in part by designing watches that were durable enough for everyday wear and less likely to break under conditions of average use.
In the years after World War Two, Japanese manufacturers saw great opportunity in the development of highly precise machine tools supporting everything from automobile production to the manufacture of aircraft. Many Japanese companies incorporated the engineering philosophy of design for manufacturability. The guiding principle behind this philosophy was to integrate the design and manufacturing functions which in turn led to increased production efficiencies and increased levels of quality. These lessons were not lost on the growing Citizen Company and the result was the production of very precise watch components, greater reliability and ease of repair.
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